Windjammer - Awaken (2022)

Windjammer, with their musical wizardry and determinedly outsider stance, evoke not one but two past ages. Firstly, there is the England, or rather Albion, from which all of paganistic spiritualism has evolved; this rakes in many strands of ancient British history sung by this band, subjects as diverse as a seventeenth-century pirate from Newton Ferrers (Henry ‘Long Ben’ Avery) to the ecologically disastrous activities of a nineteenth-century whaling ship from Aberdeenshire. Secondly, they rather splendidly recall the sounds of a specific stylistic development, primarily in England, from just over fifty years ago that shared a fascination with these very same mystical times. I am thinking of that acoustic detour Led Zeppelin took on their third album, Jimmy Page calling out to the demons and wizards in his head, later using a violin bow like a wand; also the Incredible String Band and Dr Strangely Strange, sitting cross-legged and acoustically jamming loosely, their heads filled with knights of the round table and hippy progression. Fairport Convention first kicked this door open in 1969, and, for a while, all the bands in the general vicinity seemed to walk through for a rummage. It did not last, of course, but, crucially, neither was the door bolted shut, which allows Windjammer to get stuck in today and still find plenty to bite into.

Progression is a good word; actually, there is a segment in ‘The Pirate King’ where the wind instrument punctuations are so dramatic that you half expect to look up and see Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson standing, one-legged, foot pressed against knee and flute flailing wildly from the mouth. The changes in this song and theatricality in the vocal are pure Prog drama, but I use the word in other contexts also; there are times on this album where producer Sean Lakeman realises textures that remind me clearly of sounds Peter Gabriel has put his name to on Real World albums. This pirate tale is a six-minute epic, a proper calling card for the Windjammer modus operandi and, crucially, the strength of all three members is in full view. As a lead singer Jake Sonny Rowlinson sure knows how to put a story across whilst Fran Rowney takes credit for those attention-grabbing low whistles; Jeremy Bunting unleashes the ghost of Bert Jansch in the way he attacks those acoustic guitar strings.